Cautionary Tales For Children
Wonderful witty poems great for reading to your children. The stories and rhymes will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Research has shown how important YOU are to your children and how as a dad the things you do, and keep on doing, really count, whether you live with them, or you are a single dad and are only able see them once a month, once a week or more, what you do really matters. This site is dedicated to all dads but will be of special relevance to the single dad. Remember, you are half the reason your children exist and they need you whether you live with them or not. As their dad, you have what it takes to make their lives successful and fulfilling no matter how often you see them. This site is about all the positive things that we as parents have to offer our children.

Bell Huey Helicopter

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Make this superb helicopter, it's satisfyingly big and the main rotors turn

A nice complicated model for when you have a whole afternoon to occupy. The main rotor turns and the wire coat hanger skid supports flex so nicely when you “land” it. Hours of making and playing fun. We only had blue paint, but we’d love to see a camouflage green version. . . .
It is most likely that you won't have exactly the same containers as we did. No matter, making a model from junk is all about discovery, improvisation, problem solving, and working with what is available. In making a model like this with your kids, there is no doubt, you will be doing most of the work, but you will be showing them so much about life. My kids love finding suitable things for the next bit we are making, or suggesting solutions when stuff doesn't look right. After we made this, one of my kid's friends came round and wanted one too. Because we had different junk packaging we ended up making a Chinook from two long thin one litre juice cartons. It looked just as cool. . . .
Of course some of the ideas in this project will be helpful whatever type of chopper you make; the way the rotor is put together, how to make a decent looking tail, how to make the skids... the rest however, is up to you. The main thing is to start with something nice and chunky for the body and attach the rest on to that. Our Huey helicopter was made about two years ago and still gets played with although I have had to re-attach the skids a couple of times, after particularly heavy "landings".

TIP:
paint some of the components before assembling them to get a really good effect.

The download comes in both US Letter size and A4, all you have to do is just click on the size you need, to download it.

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We can't wait to see the pictures of what you’ve made. Kids love it when the things you made together are published, so go on upload a picture of what you made. It's easy, just go to your dadcando My Page and upload your pictures into this project and we'll put one of them right here in the project picture gallery.

To give you the higest quality and the shortest download time, most of our downloads are supplied in Adobe PDF format for your convenience. Adobe Reader is standard on most computers, but if you do not have it, you can get the most up to date version free from Adobe, here.

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Make toys from junk

You can make the most incredible toys using just about any old junk. Kids love things to be quick, so get busy with a glue gun with its instant, incredible sticking power and the ability to glue almost anything to anything. Suddenly an old detergent bottle has so many exciting possibilities. Combine that with a can of quick drying spray paint and a permanent marker, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be, well, a rocket scientist, or an engineer, or a magician. The toys you can make from junk are amazing and the most fun to play with and you’ll find you can add engineer and magician to your growing list of titles. Simple, easy to follow downloadable instructions and graphic printer sheets will help you and

your kids make the most fantastic looking models. This canoe was made out of two shampoo bottles and really floats; great

for bath time.

All our downloads
are gorgeous, and the instructions
couldn't be easier to follow, with projects from the simplest to the most advanced, all explained in beautiful pictorial detail. The instructions are all original and like nothing else you'll find on the web. What’s more, we've made them all and had a lot of fun making them, so even before you start, you'll know it can be done. On dadcando you’ll find projects for every skill level, and my kids have play tested every model, so we know they work in the playability department as well.

In fact, it must be said, often they have more play value than expensive shop bought toys.. Don't worry if you don't have exactly the same junk as us, making things from junk is not an exact science; let your creativity and problem solving skills show through. When making from junk there are no rules. Start collecting empty packaging right now and within a week or two you'll have enough to build your first model from Junk.

Making stuff from junk is a great way to recycle your rubbish, and very soon, just like your children, when you see an empty ice cream carton, a wire coat hanger, or a used Tetrapak you won't see rubbish, you'll see a rocket port, a ship, or a dog kennel.

Featured Project

MicroCards
MicroCards are
miniature playing cards that can be printed out on one sheet of paper.
Just cut them out and play on the go!